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Naniwa Super Stone

This page lists the last of the original Super Stones. The "New Super Stone" is here. The new version is twice as thick and has even better grit tolerances.

The Naniwa Super Stone is an exciting Japanese Waterstone for sharpening knives and tools. Like all waterstones, these stones require water but unlike traditional Japanese Waterstones, these don’t require soaking ahead of time. To use these stones, just apply a bit of water to the surface and you’re ready to sharpen.

Each stone measures 8 1/4" long, 2 3/4" wide and 3/8" thick. Each stone is bonded to a solid base. The base provides plenty of knuckle clearance when sharpening knives and is solidly built for sharpening tools.

These stones sharpen very quickly. With many of the modern steel alloys, speed of sharpening can be an important factor when considering a sharpening stone. These work well on tough tool steels such as A2 or D2 and very hard stainless alloys popular in Japanese and western cutlery.

We have been very impressed with the quality of these stones. Whether you're purchasing the very coarse 220 or all the way up to the extremely fine 12,000 grit, we’ve found these stones to be very consistently graded.

If you’ve considered purchasing a set of Japanese Waterstones we would certainly recommend the Naniwa Super Stones. Below we’ve described the grits in a little more detail to help you with your grit selections.

If you want to get down to the real details of this stone, this stone is made with a resin bond. This resin bond gives this stone two of its main features. First, the resin bond allows for a higher level of abrasive particles compared with less expensive methods of stone bonding. The higher abrasive levels contribute to the speed of sharpening. The second, these resin bonded stones don't require a soaking in water prior to use, just a sprinkle on the top is all that is needed.

A. Over time, all waterstones require flattening. The bonding material of the stone will wear, providing fresh abrasive material. This is why waterstones sharpen so quickly. This is also why they need to be flattened periodically. Naniwa Flattening Stone.

Q. I notice that you don't have many Superstones left. Is it discontinued and it there a replacement.

A. Yes, Naniwa did replaced the Superstone with a new stone. The bases are no longer fixed to the stone so you can flip the stone and use both sides. The production process has been slightly altered to improve upon the already high particle standards set by Naniwa. As before, the new stone does not require soaking like. New Naniwa Superstones